The NEW Escoulen Multi Axis Chuck

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
OK, this chuck is coming out, it is just being produced, first run kind of thing.

If you have ever seen any of Jean-Francois Escoulen's turnings, you will see that he does a lot of off axis turnings, or multi axis turnings.

His regular eccentric chuck somewhat like a collet chuck, and a cup chuck combined. It uses a captured ball with a cup chuck in it, so by altering the tilt of the ball, in the chuck you can get an off axis turning.

You can see a good report on this kind of turning at this blog.......

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I'd love to get one of those chucks, and will at some point, but I could not resist the deal I got on Jean-Francois's new chuck, so I went ahead and smashed the piggy bank to get it. :D

This new chuck is not a "Wobble" chuck, but a true multi axis turning chuck.

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This is how it comes, in a nice neat box

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You can see everything that comes with

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This is the chuck, with the cup chuck in the center, not off axis at all.

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here the cup chuck has been moved all the way to the extreme off axis position.

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Moving the cup chuck to such an extreme off axis position would create a lot of vibration, but the Escoulen chuck handles this by having movable weights on the back of the chuck. Here they are in the neutral position. You can see the black Sharpie marks on the chuck (the real production chucks will have a mark on the chuck showing this, but for now,I'll just use a file to make a mark)

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Here the weights are move all the way off axis to counter weight the off axis cup chuck.

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This is the cup gage that comes with the chuck, making the tenon you turn for the cup easier than using calipers etc. This chuck came with the 40mm cup, more sizes will be available in the future, as accessories.

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here is a piece of wood with a tenon turned on it for the cup, a quick note, Jean-Francois suggests getting a tight fit, but also slightly wetting the tenon, before you insert it into the cup chuck, he said this has two advantages; one, it makes the tenon slide in easier, the water is a lubricant, second, the wood fibers will swell slightly, this will give an even tighter fit.
With the cup chuck at the extreme off axis position, you can now see the piece of wood with the #1 side towards you, you would then turn the piece, how you like........

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........ and then rotate the piece of wood, so a different side of the wood is to be cut. Here you can see that the #1 and the #2 sides are showing. Once you get your head wrapped around that this can do, you will be amazed, the shapes and the turning that can result are really off the scale, this, in the hands of a good turner, one with a fertile imagination, will be one heck of a tool, sadly, I've got my mitts on it, so you will have to wait a while until anything "interesting" comes off of it..... :eek:

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One more thing, Jean-Francois was kind enough to include the faceplate in my deal, this is usually a separate accessory. With the face screwed to a neat platter etc, I think some of you might just see the possibilities offered with this design, and the neatest thing is, with the counter weights, you are not fighting this huge unbalanced situation.

Well, that is it for now, I've got my spindle adapter on order, so I can only look at this amazing piece of tooling for now.

Cheers!
 
Stu, it's not fair...multiple chuck gloats this month?:eek::eek: I still don't have my first:doh:

Can't wait to see some unusualy things with this chuck. :thumb:
 
Wow, wow, wooooow, Stuart, what a beauty.
Unfortunaly it don't fit on my lathe, else ........)) :dunno:
 
Stuart, it would be my favorite toy to play with, but I'm afraid it won't fit on M18x2.5, an very unusual thread connection for a headstock spindle, don't you think.
I made for that reason already my clamping chuck.
Anyway I'm going to search for an adapter.
Thanks, have fun.:wave:
 
He has two previous ones, which one do you mean?

The "Wobble" one or the eccentric turning one?

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Wobble Chuck (Ball & Socket Chuck)

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Escoulen Deluxe Chuck

The top one, the Wobble chuck, is for spindle work, and you and tilt the work to wobble the tail stock end, the second chuck is mainly for faceplate work, and you can alter the axis.

The new chuck, is similar to the second one, but you can alter the axis of the piece from the center, then you can also turn the piece along it's length.

Kind of hard to explain, when I get the adapter, I'll put it on the lathe and show everyone.

Cheers!
 
All right Stu!

I gotta have one of those! How do I contact Jean to find out when they will be available in the states. I went to the website but did not find an email address.

Thanx,

Pete
 
Today I got the adapter for the new chuck! :D

and I had to play with it for just a few minutes..... :rolleyes:


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Here is the first pic, this is with the chuck completely centered, so I turned the piece round...

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Then I offset the piece, just a touch, I7d say less than a 1/4 of it's potential offset. I adjusted the weights on the back of the chuck, to make it run smoother, this take a bit of fiddling, but I think with time, I'll be able to dial it in much quicker. It only takes a second to loosen and slide the weights around, and to be able to offset the piece, but then balance out the offset, so you can run the lathe much faster and without vibrations, is a real treat.

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Next, with the same offset, I rotated the piece just a touch and repeated the cut a little further up along....

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Again, same offset, but another slight rotation, so now I have a third cut done.

This is just a VERY basic example of what this chuck can do, I used the tail stock in the first roughing bit, but from then on, I did not use it. I guess you could use it, if you wanted to, just place the tail stock in a different point each time...?

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Jean-Francois also gave me the faceplate attachment, which normally does not come with, but I can see this faceplate as being a REALLY big extra.

I'll post more as I play with it, but really, the mind goes :bonkers: with the possibilities of this chuck, heck, I might even take some video! :rolleyes: :D

Cheers!
 
Stuart, I'm really impressed, yep a video oh boy that would be great!!
Thanks a lot for posting this all, it keep me thinking, as you know I'm a toolguy.......)) :type::zzz:
 
Are you still interested Pete?

1/8" thick......... what, is MY name Jean-Francois Escoulen......??

NOPE! :D

Here is a "Demo" example that is "THICK"..........

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He said when doing demos, he keeps them thick, at home they have to be, at the thickest, 1.5mm........ :eek:

Neat stuff for sure
 
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